Saturday, September 09, 2006

Adult skaters

During the seminar last month, another coach mentioned, with reference to one of the adult skaters in the seminar, that "she is doing pretty well for an adult skater". The skater in question is working on her doubles.

As an adult skater, I was, for a moment, unsure whether or not to be offended. I'm certain it was meant to be a compliment, but the comment reflects a widespread ignorance towards adult skating - that adults "can't ever be as good as the kids".

I am not going to dispute that starting as an adult is often more difficult and slow-going. Many of us have work and family commitments, and we cannot run away from the realities of physical limitation. Nonetheless, the adult skaters I have met are motivated and determined. They will perservere and succeed - not so different from the young'uns, just on a different time scale! ;-0

With the introduction of adult competitions in the 90s, and the first ISU-sanctioned adult figure skating competition in 2005, adult skating is slowly gaining popularity in more countries. It is inspiring to see adult skaters doing the double axel - and even some triple jumps from a couple of the younger ones.

I wonder myself, if I would be working on the double axel when I am 40.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

Adult Skaters succeed on a different time scale, yeah. But the longer it takes, the sooner we fizz out and more likely to quit. :PNot to mention that most of the adult skaters are still women than guys, and women have triple roles than guys in their family, and hence more likely to be disrupted from skating. A big disadvantage already compared to learning skating in carefree childhood days.

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These are my personal views about figure skating here in Singapore. They do not represent the position of the ice skating rink, the figure skating assocation, nor any of the figure skating clubs in Singapore.